Top 40 Songs in Kenya – 7th May 2019

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Welcome to the inaugural post of the Top 40 Songs in Kenya. It’s the segment that reviews the most popular songs in Kenya right now with data provided by Apple Music. I’ll be revisiting this post every two weeks because things change real quick. Or not, I’ll just have to observe how long songs stay in the charts. Given that I have never done this before, I have to go through all the 40 songs that made it to the list. However, I’m only going to review them in two sentences each. Scores will be given out of 10, just like in the detailed reviews and once reviewed, I’ll just give the score the next time we mention it.

We good? Let’s do this. These are the songs that made it to the Top 40 as of May 7th 2019. I’ll leave the link to the full playlist down below.

#40 Summer Walker feat Drake – Girls Need Love (Remix): A slow song about what girls want but they don’t really want to say it. And Drake is in this song, it’s fine. 7/10.

#39 Travis Scott – SICKO MODE: Whoa, this song is still a hit in Kenya? But it still bangs hard on my headphones so I can see why it’s still here. 8/10.

#38 Rema – Dumebi: A typical Nigerian hit which I expect to be played heavily in the clubs. Not my cup of tea though. 6/10.

#37 A Boogie with a Hoodie feat 6ix9ine – Swervin: I like the beats produced by London on Da Track but I’m not so sure about the song in general. It’s your typical modern rap song, nothing that I haven’t heard before. 7/10.

#36 Drake – Nonstop: One of the good songs from the okay Scorpion album. Yeah, I didn’t like it as much; especially the second part. 8/10.

#35 Octavian feat Skepta and Michael Phantom – Bet: Is it just me or do all rappers sound the same nowadays? I can’t tell who’s who nowadays and this song is a perfect example. 6/10

#34 Post Malone feat Swae Lee – Sunflower: It’s rare for me to like a song where two rappers sing in one song but I’ll give this one a pass. Plus, who doesn’t love Swae Lee’s falsetto singing? 7.5/10

#33 Halsey – Without Me: I listened to this song at a social event and I didn’t get the name of it. Fate, however, has brought me back to this song and I simply love it. 9/10

#32 Kehlani feat Ty Dolla Sign – Nights Like This: I heard this song a couple of months back when Kehlani released her EP While We Wait. It’s fine, just fine. 7/10.

#31 benny blanco feat Halsey and Khalid – Eastside: One of my favorite songs of 2018. It seems to get better with every listen. 9/10

So far, no Kenyan song in the list. Interesting.

#30 Masego feat FKJ – Tadow: Oh wow, I love this song. You should give it a listen. 9.5/10

#29 Ariana Grande – 7 Rings: I generally liked Ariana Grande’s recent album and 7 Rings was one of my favorite songs. She is on another level right now. 8.5/10

#28 Khalid – Saturday Nights: If you read my review of Khalid’s new album, I complained about it being long. The experience was dragged by slow songs like this one, which I find okay. 7/10

#27 Burna Boy – Dangote: The song is fine but I can’t help feel that it sounds familiar to Gbona. I can’t be the only one who noticed this. 7/10

#26 Masego & Tiffany Gouche – Queen Tings: You know what, I’ll Masego’s recent album a try. He has some great songs that I can’t help myself replaying over and over again. 8.5/10

#25 Billie Eilish – Bad Guy: Keshie did the album review and she went full stan mode while doing so. I agree with her for the most part and this is my favorite song in the album. 9/10

#24 Burna Boy – Ye: So far so good, Burna Boy’s upcoming album sounds promising. I just hope he won’t release all the tracks as singles because that will defeat the purpose of releasing the album. 7.5/10

#23 Offset feat Cardi B – Clout: Offset’s album was pretty decent and Clout is the popular song from it. I like how the couple calls out blogs for spreading fake news. 8/10

#22 Joeboy – Baby: Another typical Nigerian song. What more do you want me to say? 6/10

#21 Beyonce – Sorry: This is such an old song that I won’t give it a score. It’s baffling that it’s still topping the Kenyan charts.

Do you see any Kenyan song? I don’t

#20 Post Malone – Wow: The song is just fine, as most songs from Post Malone are. It’s not like I’m expecting something spectacular from him. 7/10

#19 Schoolboy Q feat 21 Savage – Floating: I tried liking this song but it’s just a typical rap song. I do like the beats though. 7.5/10

#18 Koffee – Rapture: This is the follow-up song from her hit song, Toast (which I’m so sure is in a higher position). Uhm, the song is fine; passable at best. 7/10.

#17 Logic feat Eminem – Homicide: Two white rappers in one song. Can we just admit that white people rap better than the people who invented rap music? 8/10

#16 Nyashinski – Marathon Runner: Fun fact, this is the first Kenyan song I’m seeing in this list (the irony). And it’s an okay song; I’ve heard better from him. 7/10

#15 J Cole – Middle Child: Being a J Cole stan, I see no wrong with this song. But, it’s not my favorite song from him. 8.2/10

#14 Diamond Platnumz feat Fally Ipupa – Inama: Another song from Diamond Platnumz and Lizer Classic. Let’s just agree that Diamond is unstoppable at this rate. 8/10

#13 Meek Mill feat Drake – Going Bad: I didn’t get the hype of this song. It’s just fine, nothing more to say really. 7/10.

#12 Khalid – Talk: My favorite song from his new album. Everything about it is great. 9/10

#11 YG feat Tyga & Jon Z – Go Loko: This is a catchy song but I can sense a trend by rappers exploring other genres. It’s so easy to tell. 7.8/10

Okay, there is one song but I don’t think there is any other in the top 10.

#10 Rayvanny feat Diamond Platnumz – Tetema: An okay bongo club hit. I’m so sure this isn’t the only bongo hit in the top 10 Kenyan chart. 7/10

#9 Stormzi – Vossi Bop: I like the song, I really do, but I don’t get the Vossi Bop style. What’s that? 8/10

#8 Burna Boy – Gbona: Every time I listen to this song, I just want to get up and start dancing. It’s that good. 9/10

#7 Koffee – Toast: This is the better song from Koffee and it is easy to tell why it’s such a popular song. It’s good. 8/10.

#6 Khalid – Better: To be honest, I don’t like this song. It feels like a drag and I don’t understand why it is so high up the chart. 6.8/10

#5 Dave feat Burna Boy – Location: The song is fine and ting. I wouldn’t mind listening to it and ting. 7.5/10

(You’ll get the joke if you listen to the song)

#4 Wiley, Stefflon Don & Sean Paul feat Idris Elba – Boasty: The song is good but I’m getting tired of hearing it everywhere I go. Like come on, don’t you have other songs to play. 8/10

#2 Harmonize feat Burna Boy and Diamond Platnumz – Kainama: There are only two reasons why I like this song; Burna Boy singing in Swahili; and that lady who dropped her wig in the video. I don’t care about the rest. 7/10

#1 Burna Boy – On the Low: Another song that I love from Burna Boy. He is all over the Kenyan chart. 8.5/10

What can we conclude from this? Kenyan music is barely present in the chart which means it barely gets played. Nigerian and Tanzanian artists are the ones dominating and that should be a point of concern.

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